


into the blue

by maddy_does (favefangirl)



Series: carry on countdown 2020 [13]
Category: Carry On Series - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Gen, Little Mermaid Elements, MILD - Freeform, Mermaids, Merman!Simon, Religion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:41:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27939062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/favefangirl/pseuds/maddy_does
Summary: Baz wasn't massively enthusiastic about spending his Summer on some random Scottish cliff side with the only people around for company being his little sister, and the weird religious minister over the way. What he doesn't realise is that his holiday is about to get so much weirder.
Series: carry on countdown 2020 [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2026733
Comments: 6
Kudos: 11
Collections: Carry On Countdown 2020





	into the blue

**Author's Note:**

> Carry On Countdown Day 13, DEC 7: Below the Surface

“Mordelia, can you slow down please!” Baz called, hurrying down the cliffside after his renegade sister who showed no sign of stopping on her way down to the sea.

Baz hadn’t realised that the rough translation of ‘family holiday’ was his father and step-mother going out to on their own every morning, whilst Baz was left to babysit his sister. Had he known, he probably wouldn’t have come on this damn trip. He was perfectly happy at home on his own. He had plenty of school work to be getting on with. But his parents had been insistent that he needed to get out of the house, see the sun, maybe even enjoy the summer before he went into his GCSE year. The irony that the same people now telling him to relax had once told him to prioritise work above all else was not lost on him.

It was amazing how his parents found anything to do around there. They were miles away from anything noteworthy, just a bunch of cliffs, the cottage, and a tiny little church that housed only the crazy minister, to whom Mordelia had taken a particular shine, and her goats. In all honestly, Baz wasn’t sure he wanted to think too hard about how his parents were wiling away their afternoons. 

He finally managed to catch up with Mordelia who had been good enough to stop an wait for him. “I want to see the monster!” Mordelia shouted as Baz reached her.

“No, Mordleia, we’ve been over this. The Loch Ness Monster is in  _ Loch Ness _ .” Baz huffed in response. 

Mordelia had been excited about a trip to Scotland, because she thought she’d get to meet Nessie, and all the girls in her class would be super jealous of her. Their parents had found it sweet that she was so obsessed, but Baz, ever the voice of reason, had tried to explain to her that they were nowhere near. Mordelia remained persistent, though, much to Baz’s chagrin.

“Noooo,” Mordelia rolled her eyes. “The monster! Ebb was tell me about the fish people.”

Baz frowned at that, and followed helplessly after Mordelia as she carried on down the path to a little cove. Ebb was nice enough. She’d given them goats cheese and flowers in a gift basket when they’d arrived, and said that the kirk was always open to them, and she was always available for a wee chat. It was only Mordelia who still really practised, though they were all technically Christians, so she’d go down to the kirk most mornings, and come back with shortbreads and biscuits and sour cherry scones that Ebb apparently baked herself.

She was nice enough, but more than a little strange. Baz had accompanied Mordelia down to the kirk one morning, more for something to do than anything else, and had sat with them both as they’d had cups of sugary tea and biscuits so hard Baz feared he was going to lose a tooth. Ebb was eccentric, even for a minister. She didn’t preach much godliness, though she did like to say a prayer over her tea, whatever that was meant to do. Instead she liked to tell them about the folklore of the surrounding area. Baz didn’t listen much to any of it. Ebb’s accent was thick, so it was exhausting trying to figure out what she was saying at the best of times, but when she got on about fairies or sprites or whatever it was she was talking about, Baz found he no longer had the mental capacity to deal with any of it. 

Fish people were as like as anything to have been the focus of one of Ebb’s rambling stories. The woman must have been so lonely up there, she probably did think of the fish as friends. In the time they’d there, Baz hadn’t seen anyone else. There weren’t even any photographs in the kirk, outside of a modest portrait of the crucifixion. It was no wonder, really, that she’d been driven a bit mad.

Baz muttered as much under his breath as he followed Mordelia down the winding path until they reached the cove. It was cut into the shoreline, and almost completely secluded from the main walking path. They’d found it only by accident a few days earlier, yet another morning spent babysitting when he could’ve been sat at the cottage, by the fire, warming himself and doing some prep work for the next year.

Mordelia toed at the edge of the water once they’d reached the bottom of the path. The sandals she’d kicked off lay haphazardly in the sand, and Baz picked them both up to set them nealty next to him as he settled down in the shade. He really was going to die of boredom that holiday, he was sure. 

It was a sunny day, warm, especially with the walls of the cove blocking out most of the wind. There was still a slight sea breeze that blew at Baz’s floral shirt, and tickled the hair on his legs below the cut of his chino shorts. He let his hair down from the messy bun he’d pulled it up into as they were walking along the tops, having grown sick of it ending up in his mouth, but feeling confident now that the same wouldn’t keep happening. 

Mordelia was perfectly content splashing around in the waves, probably looking for fish men, as Baz pulled a beaten copy of _Emma_ out of his backpack and settled back to read it. It wasn’t necessarily a bad way to spend the afternoon, but he still would rather have been back with civilisation. 

He lost himself in the book for a while, when there was a sudden drop in temperature. He frowned and looked over the top of his book to see that clouds had spread across the sky, blocking out most of the light. He put a gum wrapped in the book to mark his place, then put it back in his bag and stood up. He was confused - it wasn’t forecast to rain. There was a thunder clap that sounded very close by which made him jump and Mordelia shriek.

“Let’s go back to the cottage before it starts chucking it down,” Baz said, already turning to reach for his bag.

Then he heard Mordelia screaming. He turned back around to check on her. She was running backwards up the beach to him. Baz frowned then saw what had her freaked out. There was a man crawling his way out of the water. Blood was dripping down his side. It stained the sand red. He was grunting and groaning. Mordelia reached Baz and hid behind him. He backed them both up in the direction of the path then stopped, suddenly frozen.

The man had a tail?

Mordelia was still tugging him up towards the path and still screaming. The sky seemed to darken even further. Thunder cracked again. The man managed to get his whole body out of the water then collapsed in the sand. Just as quickly as it had come, the thunder and the darkness dissipated into blue sky and sunshine. 

“Mordelia, shut up,” Baz shouted at his still screaming sister, trying to process what he was looking at. 

A man - no, a boy, really - laying face down in the sand, bleeding profusely, with a  _ tail _ . It was iridescent blue and green, glinting in the sunlight and the drops of water left on it. And it was a freaking _tail_. This was … This had to be a dream. Baz was going to wake up in his warm bed in the cottage to Mordelia asking him to come to the cove, they would come down, he’d read until lunch, then they’d go home. No weird weather, no midnight in the morning, and no fish men.

Oh, good God, it was a fish man.

“A Merman,” a voice came from behind him, causing both he and Mordelia to jump and shout at the same time. “Aye, you dinnea think am so mad now, do you?” Ebb asked as she descended the path and went to kneel by the man. She tutted. “That’s a nasty wound you've go', it’ll take some healing.” 

She reached into her stachel and pulled out a jar of a white cream. She opened it, spooned a generous helping out with her hand, and began to massage it into the man’s skin. Curious about what was going on, and apparently less scared now Ebb was here, Mordelia began to extract herself from Baz’s hold to try and take a closer look.

“Mordelia, no,” Baz said, trying to hold her extra tightly.

“Ah, dinnea be scared now, he’s no' gonna hurt anybody, no' in this state.” Ebb protested, waving Mordelia over with a jerk of her head.

Mordelia went but Baz stayed fixed on the spot as Ebb rolled the man onto his back. Baz could just make out his features - a golden complexion with blonde hair in curls atop his head, a strong jawline, and slightly crooked nose. Sand covered most of his body where he’d been laying in it.

With a start, the man opened his eyes, causing both Baz and Mordelia to flinch backwards, but Ebb was unfazed, cradling his torso to her thighs, and running a soothing hand through his hair. She was cooing at him in a language Baz didn’t understand, but the comforting nature of the words was evident in the tone she was using. The man flicked his blue eyes first to Ebb, then Mordelia, and finally to Baz. His eyes lingered on Baz a moment before looking back to Ebb.

He opened his mouth as though to speak, but all that came out was a whine. “Alright now, dinnae worry my love, we’ll get you better.”

Mordelia knelt down next to them, and tentatively reached out a hand to stroke against the scales of the man’s tail. The man sat up quickly and made a grunting sound, hand flying to his side. Baz immediately moved forwards, calling out Mordelia's name, prepared to get her out of the way. But the man didn’t do anything to stop her. Mordelia stared at him with flying saucer eyes, frozen for a moment, before stroking over his tail again. The man did nothing more, just watched her, then fell back against Ebb’s legs.

Mordelia grinned up at Baz as she continued to stroke the man’s tail and said, “See, I told you, fish men!”

And that was about when Baz fainted.

**Author's Note:**

> It's probably completely unoriginal writing about mermaids for this prompt, but we move.
> 
> also, i see this as kind of an introduction to a work? i don't know if i plan to continue it or not because there's some other stuff i want to do once coc is over, but never say never i guess.
> 
> anyway, if you wanna leave a comment or a kudos they're much appreciated! especially let me know if there's something you think i forgot to tag! 
> 
> i'm taking prompts! if you're interested please drop the prompt in the comments below. if you do send a prompt be prepared for me to take fifty years to fill it because _uni_ , but i promise i'll try! come say hi on tumblr: [@maddy-does](https://maddy-does.tumblr.com/)
> 
> thanks for reading, have a wonderful existence.


End file.
